CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 General
A component in a structure may be susceptible to one, two or more
kinds of failure. For example, under given load conditions a roller bearing is
most likely to fail through fatigue of its rollers after a certain number of
rotations. We should thus know the different conditions that can cause the
failure of a structural component. Some of the common causes of failure are
yielding, deflection beyond a certain age, Buckling, Fatigue, Fracture, Creep,
Environmental degradation, Resonance, Impact and Wear.
1.2 Fatigue
Fatigue failures in metallic structures are a well-known technical
problem. A single load application, far below the static strength of a structure,
did not do any damage to the structure. Fracture due to fatigue and
consequent failure is very common in steel structures. A repeated load
applications can start a fatigue mechanism in the material leading to
nucleation of a small crack, followed by crack growth, and ultimately to
complete

failure..Such

failures

occur

predominantly

at

component

connections. Connections refers to those locations in a structure where

elements are joined to accommodate changes in geometry or fabrication or
service requirements. Fatigue cracking in bridges, ships, offshore structures,
pressure vessels and building occurs, almost without exception, at the
welded or bolted connections.
1.3 Welding and Welding Connections
Welding is the process of joining two pieces of metal by
creating a strong metallurgical bond between them by heating or pressure or
both. It is distinguished from other forms of mechanical connections, such as
riveting or bolting, which are formed by friction or mechanical interlocking. It
is one of the oldest and reliable methods of joining. Welding offers many
advantages over bolting and riveting. Welding enables direct transfer of

stress between members eliminating gusset and splice plates necessary for
bolted structures. Hence, the weight of the joint is minimum. In the case of
tension members, the absence of holes improves the efficiency of the
section. It involves less fabrication cost compared to other methods due to
handling of fewer parts and elimination of operations like drilling, punching
etc. and consequently less labour leading to economy. Welding offers air tight
and water tight joining and hence is ideal for oil storage tanks, ships etc.
Welded structures also have a neat appearance and enable the connection
of complicated shapes. Welded structures are more rigid compared to
structures with riveted and bolted connections. A truly continuous structure is
formed by the process of fusing the members together. Generally welded
joints are as strong or stronger than the base metal, thereby placing no
restriction on the joints. Stress concentration effect is also considerably less
in a welded connection.
1.4 Types of joints and welds
By means of welding, it is possible to make continuous, load bearing
joints between the members of a structure. A variety of joints is used in
structural steel work and they can be classified into four basic configurations
namely, Lap joint, Tee joint, Butt joint and Corner joint.
For lap joints, the ends of two members are overlapped and for butt
joints, the two members are placed end to end. The T- joints form a Tee and
in Corner joints, the ends are joined like the letter L. Most common joints are
made up of fillet weld or the butt (also calling groove) weld. Plug and slot
welds are not generally used in structural steel work. Fig.1 Fillet welds are
suitable for lap joints and Tee joints and groove welds for butt and corner
joints. Butt welds can be of complete penetration or incomplete penetration
depending upon whether the penetration is complete through the thickness or
partial. Generally a description of welded joints requires an indication of the
type of both the joint and the weld.
Though fillet welds are weaker than butt welds, about 80% of the
connections are made with fillet welds. The reason for the wider use of fillet
welds is that in the case of fillet welds, when members are lapped over each
other, large tolerances are allowed in erection. For butt welds, the members

to be connected have to fit perfectly when they are lined up for welding.
Further butt welding requires the shaping of the surfaces to be joined as
shown in Fig1.2. To ensure full penetration and a sound weld, a backup plate
is temporarily provided as shown in Fig1.3
1.4.1. Butt welds:
Full penetration butt welds are formed when the parts are connected
together within the thickness of the parent metal. For thin parts, it is possible
to achieve full penetration of the weld. For thicker parts, edge preparation
may have to be done to achieve the welding. There are nine different types of
butt joints: square, single V, double V, Single U, double U, single J, double J,
single bevel and double bevel. They are shown in Fig1.1 In order to qualify
for a full penetration weld; there are certain conditions to be satisfied while
making the welds.
Welds are also classified according to their position into flat,
horizontal, vertical and overhead. Flat welds are the most economical to
make while overhead welds are the most difficult and expensive.

Figure 1.1 Different Types of Butt Welds

The main use of butt welds is to connect structural members, which
are in the same plane. A few of the many different butt welds are shown in
Fig1.4.There are many variations of butt welds and each is classified

according to its particular shape. Each type of butt weld requires a specific
edge preparation and is named accordingly. The proper selection of a
particular type depends upon: Size of the plate to be joined; welding is by
hand or automatic; type of welding equipment, whether both sides are
accessible and the position of the weld.
Butt welds have high strength, high resistance to impact and cyclic
stress. They are most direct joints and introduce least eccentricity in the joint.
But their major disadvantages are: high residual stresses, necessity of edge
preparation

and

proper

aligning

of

the

members

Figure 1.2 Common Types of Welds

in

the

field.

Figure 1.3 Shaping of Surface and Backup Plate

Figure 1.4 Typical Connections with Butt Weld

To minimise weld distortions and residual stresses, the heat input is
minimised and hence the welding volume is minimised. This reduction in the
volume of weld also reduces cost. Hence for thicker plates, double Butt welds
and U welds are generally used. For a butt weld, the root gap, R, is the
separation of the pieces being joined and is provided for the electrode to
access the base of a joint. The smaller the root gap the greater the angle of
the bevel. The depth by which the arc melts into the plate is called the depth
of penetration [Fig1.5 (a)]. Roughly, the penetration is about 1 mm per 100A
and in manual welding the current is usually 150 200 A. Therefore, the
mating edges of the plates must be cut back if through-thickness continuity is
to be established. This groove is filled with the molten metal from the
electrode. The first run that is deposited in the bottom of a groove is termed
as the root run [Fig1.5 (c)]. For good penetration, the root faces must be
melted. Simultaneously, the weld pool also must be controlled, preferably, by
using a backing strip.

Figure 1.5 Butt Weld Details

1.4.2. Fillet Welds:
Owing to their economy, ease of fabrication and adaptability, fillet
welds are widely used. They require less precision in the fitting up because
the plates being joined can be moved about more than the Butt welds.
Another advantage of fillet welds is that special preparation of edges, as
required by Butt welds, is not required. In a fillet weld the stress condition in
the weld is quite different from that of the connected parts. A typical fillet weld
is shown in Fig1.6

Design of SteFigure 1.6 Typical Fillet Weld

The root of the weld is the point where the faces of the metallic
members meet. The theoretical throat of a weld is the shortest distance from
the root to the hypotenuse of the triangle. The throat area equals the
theoretical throat distance times the length of the weld.
The concave shape of free surface provides a smoother transition
between the connected parts and hence causes less stress concentration
than a convex surface. But it is more vulnerable to shrinkage and cracking
than the convex surface and has a much reduced throat area to transfer
stresses. On the other hand, convex shapes provide extra weld metal or
reinforcement for the throat. For statically loaded structures, a slightly convex
shape is preferable, while for fatigue prone structures, concave surface is
desirable.
Large welds are invariably made up of a number of layers or passes.
For reasons of economy, it is desirable to choose weld sizes that can be
made in a single pass. Large welds scan be made in a single pass by an
automatic machine, though manually, 8 mm fillet is the largest single-pass
layer.
1.5 Need for Study
Fatigue cracking in steel structural connections such as bridges, ships,
offshore structures, pressure vessels and building occurs almost at the
welded and bolted connections. Due to unexpected loads such as
earthquake, wind action, the connection in steel structures failed due to brittle
fracture. Such failures occur predominantly at component connections. In this
background, it was felt necessary to check, at least in selected cases,
whether the steel structural connections fabricated In Indian conditions and
made of structural steel available in open market in India, conforming to the
IS (IS2062:2006) specification, would satisfy the IS codal provisions in terms
of fatigue life, (number of cycles to failure). The steel used in the present
studies was procured from open market in Chennai. Fabrication of the
connections was carried out by a fabricator who is considered reasonably
good and is regularly carrying out fabrication jobs related to structural
engineering applications.

Some of the disadvantages of welding are that it requires skilled

manpower for welding as well as inspection. Also, non-destructive evaluation
may have to be carried out to detect defects in welds. Welding in the field
may be difficult due to the location or environment. Welded joints are highly
prone to cracking under fatigue loading. Large residual stresses and
distortion are developed in welded connection.
1.6 Objectives of the Study

To design a appropriate welded connection and Construction details

as per Indian codal provisions.

To determine the fatigue life evaluation of designed welded connection

subjected to shear.

To evaluate fatigue strength of structural connections by S-N curve

approach.

CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Abolhassan Astaneh et al (1990) discussed about a tee- framing shear
connection consists of a steel tee section connected to a beam web and to
supporting member such as column. It transforms end shear reactions to the
supporting members. It was observed that considerable shear yielding
occurred in the stem and flange of the tee prior to failure. The yielding
caused a reduction of the rotational stiffness, which in turn caused
redistribution of the end moments to the mid span of the beam.
Shahram Sarkani et.al (1991) discussed about influence of small stress
ranges on a recently proposed sequence dependent fatigue damage model
was examined. The parameters needed to implement the sequence
dependent damage model were obtained by combined experimental and
analytical approach. It was observed that under constant amplitude testing
results in variable amplitude fatigue life predictions that are in excellent
agreement with experimental results.
P.Dong (2001) discussed about the structural stress definition is consistent
with elementary structural mechanics theory and provides an effective
measure of a stress sate that pertains to fatigue behaviour of welded joints in
the form of both membrane and bending components. The results strongly
suggest that weld classification based S-N curve is determined by the relative
composition of the membrane and bending components of the structural
stress parameter.
Timothy D.Righiniotis et al (2002) discussed about the application of a
probabilistic fracture mechanics approach to predict the fatigue life of welded
steel details in the presence of cracks under bridge spectrum loading. It was
based on a recently proposed bi-linear relationship to model fatigue crack
growth and incorporates a failure criterion to describe the interaction between
fracture and plastic collapse. Results pertaining to fatigue reliability and
fatigue crack size evolution are presented using simulation with Latin
Hypercube Sampling, and emphasis is placed on a comparison between
linear and bi-linear crack growth models. The latter is found to lead to higher

fatigue life estimates and significantly different crack size distributions, both
of which have implications on inspection schemes for steel bridge
components.
P.Johan Singh et al (2002) discussed about the influence of welding
procedure on fatigue properties of gas tungsten arc welded (GTAW) AISI
304L load carrying cruciform joints, containing lack of penetration (LOP) has
been studied using a crack initiationpropagation(I-P) method.

The local

stress-life approach is used to estimate the crack initiation life and a fracture
mechanics approach for predicting crack propagation life of welded joints.
Micro-measurements crack propagation gauges were used to find the crack
initiation and propagation data during the fatigue process. The predicted lives
were compared with the experimental values. It was found that the fatigue
crack initiation lives of the joints fabricated by a double pass technique were
relatively higher than the joints fabricated by a single pass technique.
Elena Mele et al (2003) discussed about assessment of the cycle behaviour
of beam to column welded connections which are made in European code.
Three specimens groups, characterized by different values of the relative
column beam panel zone strength, are designed and tested under different
loading histories. The intermediate size specimens characterized by close
values of beam and panel zone plastic capacity and, consequently, by
occurrence of inelastic deformations both in the beam and in panel zone, it
was observed that intermediate specimen were strong dependence of the
cyclic behaviour, of the performance parameters values and of the failure
mode on the applied history.
S.J Maddox (2003) discussed about fatigue assessment of welded aluminium
alloy structures and methods for the welded the fatigue evaluation of welded
aluminium structures were assessed from the viewpoints of original design
and estimation of the residual life of existing structures.
Fidelis Rutendo Mashiri et al (2004) discussed about the fatigue tests were
carried out on welded thin-walled (t< 4 mm) T-joints made of circular hollow
section braces welded onto square hollow section chords, under the loading
conditions of in-plane bending in the brace. Stress distributions were

10

measured at different hot spot locations around the chordbrace junction,

where cracks were observed to initiate and grow causing fatigue failure. An
end of test failure criterion is chosen and shown to be are liable method for
obtaining fatigue data that can be used for producing design SN curves. A
through thickness crack is shown to occur when a surface crack has grown to
a length equal to about 40% of the circumference of the weld toe in the
chord.
Ann Schumacher et al (2005) discussed about fatigue tests were carried out
on welded circular hollow section K-joints typical to bridges. The tests
specimens were large-scale (approximately 9 m long and 2 m high) trusses
loaded in the plane of the truss. Measured member stresses showed that a
significant proportion of the load in a truss member may be due to bending,
underlining the importance of considering correctly this load case in the
design of these structures. A comparison of fatigue SN results from smaller
and larger welded circular hollow section (CHS) joints has shown the same
trend indicated in design specifications: a thicker failed member results in a
lower fatigue strength. In light of the size effect results presented in this
paper and the major influence of this effect on the design of welded CHS
joints in general, it is recommended that a soundly based solution with
targeted SN curves and a representative size effect should be sought.
M.K.Chrssanthopoulos et al (2006) discussed about the application of
structural reliability techniques to fatigue related problems in welded steel
structures has occupied intensively the engineering ct was observed that
community for the past 20 years. It was observed that paramount importance
to examine care fully for each application, be it an offshore node, a ship deck
or a bridge girder, the factors that play an important role in fatigue and
fracture behaviour. Procedures have been identified, tools exist, required
data are available and case studies can be consulted, but the need for well
thought out benchmarking of analytical results against experimental data
bases, careful probabilistic modelling.
T. Nykanen et al (2008) discussed about the influence of local geometrical
weld variations on the fatigue strength of non-load-carrying cruciform fillet
welded joints were systematically studied using plane strain linear elastic

11

fracture mechanics (LEFM).The effects of weld toe radius, flank angle and
weld size were considered.
Biehn Baik et al (2010) discussed about fatigue test have been conducted on
specimens, which are flat plate with a notch, stud welded plate, T- shaped
fillet welded joint and cruciform fillet welded joint, in a such a way that fatigue
cracks could be initiated and propagated in bending load. Under this, surface
crack formed flat semi-ellipse and propagated to about 80% of plate
thickness before failure. Numerical results to the test results show that the
proposed equation provides good accuracy of the numerical results.
S.Vishnuvardhan et al (2011) discussed about fatigue life evaluation of
structural connections welded and unwelded of IS 2062 Steel and these
connections are compared with the characteristic S-N curves recommended
in IS 800. Totally 27 specimens were tested for fatigue life evaluation. Five
numbers of plain plate specimens, eight numbers of unwelded specimens
and fourteen numbers of welded specimens conforming to constructional
details of IS 800. It was observed that all welded specimens which were
tested at a a maximum stress value equal to 60% of the yield strength of the
material and above failed to satisfy the codal provisions, there was no
significant variation in the predicted values of fatigue strength for different
constructional details using EC 3 and IS 800 were almost the same.
Yan-Bo et al (2012) discussed about the presence of residual stress in
members can significantly compromise the stiffness and fatigue life of steel
structural components. Nevertheless, due to the difference of stressstrain
relations and material properties under ambient and high temperatures, the
residual stress distribution in a high strength steel member is physically
different from those fabricated from mild carbon steel. It was imperative to
study the residual stress distribution for structural members fabricated from
high strength steel. In this paper, the residual stresses of three welded flamecut H-section columns with a nominal yield strength of 460 MPa but different
cross-section

dimensions

were

investigated.

The

magnitudes

and

distributions of the measured residual stresses are identical with those of

carbon steel, however in relatively smaller residual stress ratios. It was
observed that, based on the measurements, a simplified residual stress

12

distribution for 460 MPa high strength steel members with welded flame-cut
H-section is proposed.
Y.Garbatov et al (2013) discussed about analyze of fatigue strength of small
scale corroded steel specimens. The specimens were cut from a box girder,
which was initially corroded in real sea water conditions. Fatigue assessment
of crack propagation on a pit like crack flow based on a failure assessment
diagram was performed. The admissible initial idealized flow defect has been
defined, which matches the fatigue life achieved by the fatigue test for
different load categories and corrosion degradation level.

CHAPTER 3
ANALYTICAL PROGRAM
3.1 General
In this chapter discussed about the design of connection of particular
type of connection with fatigue design provisions and evaluate fatigue life of
connection respect to codal provisions.
3.2 Design of Connection

13

In this study, a welded steel connection have been chosen and it is

shown in Fig 3.1, which is recommended by IS 800 : 2007. It describes Fillets
welds transmitting shear. Stress range to be calculated on weld throat area

Figure 3.1 Construction details of welded connection (IS 800:2007)

3.3 Fatigue Design Provisions
IS 800 also includes a section on Fatigue where S-N curves have
been given for different non welded and welded constructional details.
Detail category is the designation (a number) given to particular
constructional detail which represents the fatigue strength 5 x 10 6 cycles
N/mm2 .
The uncorrected fatigue strength of the standard detail category for
the normal fatigue stress is given by equations. Fig.3.2 shows the standard
S-N curves for each detail category for normal stress range in IS 800.
When Nsc 5 x 106
f

fn

5 x 106 / Nsc

(3.1)

Where ,
fn

= Shear fatigue strength of the detail for 5 x 106 ,for detail

category
f

= Shear fatigue stress range of the detail, respectively, for

life cycle of Nsc

14

Figure 3.2 IS 800:2007 fatigue strength (S-N) curves for Shear Stress.
3.4 Fatigue Life Evaluation
Fatigue life evaluations have to be predicted for the fig 3.1. The shear
fatigue strength(

fn

), recommended as per IS 800 is 67 MPa for the fig 3.1.

The various stress were choosen as per IS 2062 :1996. For the various
stress range and shear fatigue strength, the number of cycles (Nsc) Were
calculated as per equation (3.1) and is presented in table 3.1
Table 3.1 Fatigue Life Evaluation
S.No

1
2
3
4
5
6

Shear fatigue strength

Design shear fatigue Number

stress

67
67
67
67
67
67

fn

) MPa

MPa
220
247
234
180
166
138

15

range

( f) cycles(Nsc)
13099
7343
9622
35726
53555
134880

of

67

207

17762

CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSION
The Steel used in the present studies is regular structural steel used in
India conforming to IS 2062. Chemical analysis and tension test have been
carried out for further studies. With an objective of checking in selected cases
whether the steel structural connections fabricated in Indian conditions and
made of structural steel available in open market in India will satisfy the IS
800: 2007 codal provisions in terms of fatigue life evaluation welded
specimens conforming to constructional details 39 have been carried out and
compare with characteristic S-N curve in IS 800.

16

REFERENCES
1. IS 800: 2007 Code of practice for General construction in Steel, Bureau of
Indian Standard, New Delhi.
2. IS 2062:2006, Hot Rolled Low, Medium and High Tensile Structural steel,
Bureau of Indian Standard, New Delhi.
3. IS 9595:1996, Metal- arc welding of carbon and carbon manganese
steels- Recommendations , Bureau of Indian Standard, New Delhi.
4. S.Vishnuvardhan, G.Raghava ,P.Gandhi, M.Saravanan, Studies on
Fatigue Life Evaluation of Structural Connections of IS 2062 Steel , IEI,
Journal-cv,Vol.92, (2011).

17

5. Elena Mele, Luis calado, Experimental Investigation on European welded

connections, J.Structural engg, Vol.129 (2003),pp 1301-1311.
6. Abolhassan & Nader (1990) Experimental studies and design of steel Tee
Shear Connection, J.Structural engg, Vol.116 (10) , Pg.No.2882-2902.
7. M.K.Chryssanthopoulos, T.D.Righiniotis Fatigue Reliability of welded Steel
Structures, J.Construction Steel Research, Vol. 62 (2006), pp 1199-1209.
8. Shahram Sarkani, D.Lutes, J.Hughes Sequence Effects On Stochastic
Fatigue Of Welded Joints, J.Structural engg, Vol.117 (1991), pp 1852- 1867
9. Yan-Bo Wang , Guo-Qiang Li , Su-Wen Chen, Residual stresses in
welded flame-cut high strength steel H-sections Journal of Constructional
Steel Research, Vol. 79 (2012), pp 159165.
10.P.Dong A structural stress definition and numerical implementation for
fatigue analysis of welded joints International Journal of Fatigue, Vol.
23(2001) , pp 865876.

11.

S.J. Maddox Review of fatigue assessment procedures for welded

aluminium structures, International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 25 (2003), pp

13591378.
12. P. Johan Singh, D.R.G. Achar, B. Guha, Hans Nordberg, Fatigue life
prediction of gas tungsten arc welded AISI 304L cruciform joints with different
LOP sizes International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 25 (2003) , pp 17.
13. Timothy D.Righiniotis, Marios K. Chryssanthopoulos Fatigue and fracture
simulation of welded bridge details through a bi-linear crack growth law
Structural Safety, Vol. 26 (2004), pp 141158.

18